She holds her head high, she does not cower. She is the princess of her people, she can do no less.
They dressed her as befits a princess, but in silks, not furs. They know nothing of her kin; the blue dress hangs foreign and exotic. It would be beautiful if she did not know it was her funeral shroud.
Ahead she can see Suki. Brave Suki who holds her head high. Katara knows what shall come, she is the princess, and she shall die last, she has already seen the others go. The crowds cheer as the Azula raises her hands, and sparks the lightning. With wide arms that manage to evoke the idea of wild restraint, she summons the lightning. It does not miss, Suki never even made a noise. She died a warrior's death. Her head held high.
Katara does not cry out for her friend, her voice had gone harsh an hour ago. Guards drag Suki's body from the dais; Katara knows there is a pile of her dead friends to the side. She knows there will be a grave, and it will not be marked. She will be in it.
Royalty last. She does not fight as they guide her to the stage. Arms tightly bound in fine silk ropes, feet hobbled with golden chains. The noise of the crowd is deafening. Over the din she can barely hear the speech, 'Barbarian Princess' she hears a man proclaim.
If she strains she can hear a gentle singing over the crowd, a sad sweet song. A song she had heard before. She closes her eyes, and the song swells. Yue's Song. It is her friend singing to her, summoning her home, the pull, and it drowns out the crowd.
A sweet crashing baritone joins the sad song, the crashing waves of the ocean singing the song of courage. The song of push.
She opens her heart to the push and the pull, she opens her eyes to the sea of people. The people push, the fire pulls. Her head is ringing with the sweet song of the moon, and the crashing waves. She is lost in it. She does not see Azula summon the blue lightning, she does not feel the spark as it dances on her skin; she is drowning in the ocean.
The sea and the moon envelop her and the world goes black.
She wakes up, which is a surprise. She is chained in a bed, she is wearing blue silk. The room is red, the bed is soft.
These facts sink. She did not die.
She does not know how long she lay there before the nurse walked in flanked by two guards.
When they see her blue eyes, the nurse gasps, and they flee the room.
It is some time before the door opens again.
"That was a neat trick you pulled back there" Azula's cruel voice carries through the room. Katara can barely hear for the crashing of the ocean. Its waves carry through the thick walls; she can feel it close by.
Azula is upset, and Katara does not care. She focuses on the ocean; she realizes that the crashing waves are not beyond the walls, but in her veins. She can feel her heart pushing, her body pulling, as the ocean flows through her. Yue's song is there too, quieter now, sad but sweeter.
Azula is saying something, but Katara can not hear.
She feels something as the fire licks her cheek. Pain? She can not remember.
She drowns again, this time in the light of the moon, until the unbearable brightness goes black again.
The next time she wakes up, she is in a stone room with metal bars. She is in a cell.
Still the ocean flows through her. Her heart pushes, her body pulls. Silently she hums Yue's song.
When the guards bring her food she can hear the oceans inside of them too. She asks them to unlock the door, and they can only comply, the sea in their hearts compels them.
Sweetly she sings now. The song is a song for lost lovers. Riding on the waves she walks out of the prison. Down the hill. She sings her song and realizes it is to her lover.
She travels.
She pauses briefly at the doors to the palace; the guards are drowning in her undertow.
She does not know where she is going, but she knows when she is there.
Her lover waits for her.
For a thousand centuries she has chased him across the sky, or perhaps he chased her.
His fires boils, but her ocean is deep, and he can not touch her cool depths.
He pushes, and he pushes, and he pushes, so she pulls.
Singing her sweet moon song, she pulls him into her arms, into her sea, into her heart. He pushes her into his bed.
The sun and the moon, the king and the queen, ying and yang.
The sun had grown too hot, it had scorched the earth, and burned the land, and the people. She cooled his fire in her waters, she soaked in his burning yellow rays in the broad surface of her moon, and she reflected back her own cool white beams.
Again she drowns.
When she awakens she is not dressed. The sun is not either. He has her held to his heart. His fire had grown too much, but it has been banked. His blazing amber eyes seek her blue ones, just as his burning lips seek to quench themselves on hers. Fire Lord Ozai pulls Katara deeper into his embrace; the moon brings balance to the sun.